Racial Motive Seen In Shotgun Slayings

A possible racial motive emerged Thursday in the murder trial of an AWOL Marine accused of two shotgun slayings and also charged with five similar killings.

Christopher Peterson, 22, of Gary allegedly told the police officer who tape-recorded two confessions that he disliked whites.

``He expressed animosity towards white people,`` said Dave Reynolds, a Portage, Ind., police officer when asked by prosecutor Ralph Staples why Peterson used the word ``white`` when referring to one of the victims, Lawrence Mills, 43, of Hammond.

Reynolds` comment came shortly before the prosecution ended its case after six days of testimony.

Peterson, who is black, is on trial in a Crown Point courtroom. He is charged with murdering Mills in the parking lot of the American Legion post in Griffith as well as killing Rhonda Hammersley, 25, of Lowell, in the gas station where she worked.

He is also accused of trying to kill Carrie Jillson, Hammersley`s co-worker, and a teenage girl in St. John. All the incidents took place during a three-hour span on Oct. 30 and all four victims were white.

Peterson is also accused of using his 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun to kill five other men.

The series of random killings spread fear throughout Lake and Porter Counties in northwest Indiana and led to the creation of a special police task force to investigate the murders.

Until Peterson was arrested on Jan. 29 as a suspect in the robbery and attempted murder of a Southlake Mall restaurant manager, law enforcement officials were seeking a shaggy-haired white man described by Jillson as the man who shot Hammersley.

But some 30 hours after his arrest, Reynolds said Peterson told him

``there is no white guy. I killed them all.``

Peterson`s two statements were played to the jury Wednesday afternoon as they listened over headphones and read transcripts of the interview.

In both confessions, Peterson said he was consumed by ``rage`` and was also taking cocaine at the time of the killings.

At one point, Peterson admitted shooting Mills, saying:

``I don`t think I had a purpose. I just, it was just, something I felt, anger inside of me.``

Reynolds asked: ``And you wanted to kill him?``

Peterson replied: ``Yeah, I think I did. I could kill him. White.``

On Thursday, Staples asked Reynolds if he knew what Peterson meant when he used the word ``white.`` Reynolds, a member of the police task force, said he had ``a good idea`` why that word was used and then said Peterson told him about his feelings toward white people.

Defense lawyers Jerry Jarrett and Alex Woloshansky must now try to convince the eight-woman, four-man jury that Peterson was the victim of a botched police investigation more concerned with finding a culprit than getting the real killer.

Although he admitted killing Hammersley, Peterson was vague about some of the details and never mentioned his friend Ronald Harris, who is currently serving a 68-year prison term for his part in two of the killings.

Harris said he was with Peterson the night Hammersley was killed and when a Portage gas station attendant was fatally shot. But at Harris` trial earlier this year, Jillson said that it was Harris, not a white man, who killed Hammersley.